Critics went crazy for this clever comedy fantasy last fall, when Twin Peaks cult maniac Ray Wise (he killed Laura Palmer!) materialized as a sharp-dressed devil -- make that Devil -- who informed poor big-box home-store schlep Bret Harrison he was fated to collect souls escaped from hell (make that Hell). Though Grounded for Life grad Harrison is enough of a looker to make the grade on a CW soap like One Tree Hill, his best friend in shelf stocking and soul- snatching was played by tousle-haired perpetual wacko Tyler Labine (the conspiracy geek of Invasion). Add the magic "vessel" Harrison was handed weekly by Wise to capture the dead evil-doers -- a Dirt Devil, or a broken toaster -- and we're talking major quirkfest.

Good for the cultists. Bad for ratings prospects. Nielsen numbers don't do the Q.

But god bless Reaper -- when it didn't premiere to the ratings critics thought it merited (it did compete Tuesdays at 9 against House and Dancing With the Stars), this Kevin Smith-produced hour just more flamboyantly embraced its weirdity. (If that's a word.) By last week's episode, the show was in-your-face strutting its cult bona fides. The guys' box store colleague Rick Gonzalez was embroiled in a "green card marriage" -- like that's gonna win over the mainstream these anti-immigrant days. And his storyline involved two women played by actresses known best to already off-the-wall viewers: Paying wife Lucy Davis made her name as the receptionist on the original British version of The Office, while secret squeeze Kandyse McClure also appears as Dualla on Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica.

Is that like a going-down-in-flames death wish or what?

One could argue Reaper had that from the beginning. A certain part of the population just isn't ever gonna go with a show where a main character is literally the Devil, whistling down the street wearing expensive suits. (And even if that part of the population might, their parents might not.) The show's notion that a major "portal to Hell" would be located at the local department of motor vehicles -- Hell in hell! -- could be considered either blasphemous or insanely clever, or both, neither of which makes the kind of mainstream friends a ratings hit needs.

Yes, indeed. Too quirky. Too clever. Too out-there. Yet too down there, too. In our glam-crazed age, how many people want to watch characters trapped in McJobs? (NBC's similar-themed Chuck has already been renewed to further investigate the question.) Of course, glamour isn't exactly getting The CW's trendy teen soap Gossip Girl anywhere. That show and Reaper are exactly tied at No. 213 in the season-to-date household Nielsen rankings, and at No. 207 in viewers ages 18-49.

Who even knew there were 213 shows airing in prime time? What a wacky season it's been. (There have actually been more than 400.)

But it's been a season constant with the past, too, in that tongue-in- cheek shows usually don't make the ratings grade. And Reaper is nothing if not whimsically ironic. Even in the midst of physical battle with last week's sick soul, the script took the time to let the possessed explain as an example of his patheticness (probably not a word) that he'd sent money to six Nigerian princesses he'd never met. Internet scams are everywhere, but jokes about them still fly under the radar for most folks.

Which is why those of us who love Reaper do. We'll find out Wednesday how much The CW loves us.